Fleets
Currently there are 11 ship types in the game: 2 trading vessels, 8 military ships, and 1 colonisation ship 'Ships' All ships must be built on a planet that you control. The more resources the planet has, the more ships it can build. Certain types of larger military ships require more advanced colonies upgraded with a Military Base before you can build them. 'Trade Ships' Trade ships are used by Trading companies to move resources from world to world, addressing shortages, and profiting from surplus. You build the trade ships, and the Trading company will pay you for their usage. Merchant vessels begin with a small amount of steel in their cargo holds to begin their trading careers. After set on an initial course, they will automatically travel to the most profitable destination for the cargo they are carrying (unless they are set on a specific trade route). Upon docking at their destination, ships sell all their cargo, and fill their holds with as much new cargo as they can afford, and then automatically pick a new destination. You can redirect a merchant vessel from its automatic route at any time. If you change the destination while the merchant is still docked at port, the merchant will replace its cargo with whatever will make the most profit for the new route you've chosen. Once a certain level of profit is reached, they return to their home port and render a profit to their owners and taxes to the planetary government. 'Merchantmen' Merchant ships are the basic trade ship, they travel from star to star, buying and selling goods in an attempt to make a profit. 'Bulk Freighter' The largest of the trade ships, bulk freighters have twice as much cargo space as ordinary merchant ships, and require significantly more resources to build. Bulk Freighters tend to return to their home port more often, and try to bring back food when they do (very useful for colonies that are suffering a food shortage.) 'Military Ships' Miltary ships are built for space combat. They are used to wage war, commit acts of piracy, conquer enemy-held colony worlds, defend your fleets/planets against invading forces, and to gather information on your enemies. Whether your ships attack or not depends upon their disposition. 'Super Battleship' The largest and deadliest ship in the game, the Super Battleship requires the most resources to build. They have the best sensor range, the best attack and defensive ratings, but are also the slowest ship class. 'Battleship' Battleships are larger and more powerful than cruisers, and have a much better defensive capability. They are slower than cruisers however, and much more expensive. 'Cruiser' The smallest of the capital ship class. Cruisers are the fastest military ships, designed for speed and attack, but they are relatively weak at defending themselves. 'Destroyer' The workhorse of military units. Cheap and quick to build, they are lightly armored and relatively expendable. This is the strongest military ship that can be built by a colony without the Military Base upgrade. 'Frigate' The smallest effective military unit, and of all the other military units, cost the least amount of resources to build and maintain. Designed for use as convoy escorts, and as a defensive screen for larger military units. 'Subspacer' Subspacers are smaller stealth-like ships, that are good for commerce raiding (piracy) and spying. The Subspacer's cloaking technology can be detected by enemy fleets given a random chance, dependent on how close they are to the other fleet/star. They lose their stealth ability if mixed with other ships in the same fleet. They have the second best sensor range (after Super Battleships & Blackbirds) of any ship. 'Scout' Scouts are tiny, fast, and lightly armed, but they are not hardened against attack. They require the least resources to build of any ship type. Scouts are ideal for watching over trade routes, or keeping tabs on your neighbors. If faced with a real fight, scouts are quickly destroyed. 'Blackbird' A faster, tougher, and more expensive scout. Useful for doing reconnaissance over hostile territory, they are second only to the Super Battleship in defensive capability. They also have the best sensor range of any ship type. They are very expensive to build, and require the most amount of resources to operate. 'Colony Ships' 'Arc' Arcs are very large ships used to create a colony on an unoccupied star system, or to boost the population and resources of an existing colony. Upon arrival at a star system, the colonists will deconstruct the Arc and use its raw materials to build a colony. While enroute, the colonists are kept in freezers, so maintenance costs are kept low. Arcs have no weaponry, very little protection, and are easy prey to pirates if left unprotected. Fleet Disposition A fleet's disposition can be thought of as it's "rules of engagement". They either limit or allow certain behaviors of that fleet, and will also affect how other fleets and planets react to the fleet. In order to change a fleets disposition, you can select the fleet, select the fleet's path, or if the fleet is docked at a planet, select the planet, and the fleet will be listed on the planet's menu. Fleet dispositions can be changed at anytime. These are the dispositions used in the game.: *Attack - Directs ships to attack enemy fleets or planets. You must declare war on your target before battle will commence, unless the target is set to Piracy. *Colonise - Directs ships to land on planets and establish new colonies, or bolster existing colonies (boosting the colonies population). Only Arcs fleets use this disposition. *Patrol - Directs ships to lower their speed, so that they don't overrun their sensor coverage. *Piracy - Directs ships to attack target fleets or planets. Targets can only be merchant fleets or arc fleets. Pirate fleets have a chance to steal cargo from merchant ships, or capture ships (which then join the pirate fleet). You do not have to declare war in order to pirate targets, but you cannot pirate your allies' fleets. Ships engaging in piracy are open to attack by military vessels even if war hasn't been delcared. *Planetary Assault - Directs ships to focus primarily on assaulting the target planet, it will assault all planets within range. It will ignore potential target fleets if they do not engage with the assault fleet. *Planetary Defense - Directs ships to defend the system they're in from assault from all hostile fleets. *Scout - This is the default setting for newly built scout and blackbird fleets. Only scouts and blackbirds can use this disposition. Currently there is no in game effect related to setting your fleet to "scout". *Screen - This disposition does not have any effect, and will likely be removed eventually. *Trade - Directs ships to automatically buy and sell cargo by travelling from port to port. Only Merchant fleets use this disposition. Ship Building Costs Ship Stats and Upkeep Costs